Recyclable bag

ABSTRACT

A recyclable bag especially large and for large weights with a variable number of handles preferably four at the top, instant discharge by its bottom of all loading material, with a closure that is composed of three layers, the outermost of which has a quadrangular hole with loops that are tied to each other and that supports the other layers of the bottom.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of Application No. U4815 filed inUruguay on Aug. 19, 2021 under 35 U.S.C. § 119, the entire contents ofall of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to recyclable bags and, more particularly,to recyclable bags having openable bottoms.

Description of Related Art

It is known to use recyclable bags for all types of loads, from cerealsto Portland cement, debris, etc. They have many advantages over any typeof rigid container: their cost, their ease of manufacture, the smallvolume they occupy when empty, their easy repair, the adaptation of theshape to the volume of what they are loading, etc.

It is not so well known, however, the difficulty of fully opening thebottom of such bags and instantly unloading all their contents whilethey hang from the hook of a crane or similar machinery.

For example, European patent application no. EP3705421 discloses aflexible container including an internal bag and an external bag, afirst joining element and a lid. The outer pouch includes a portion ofthe bottom surface where a lower opening is formed. The inner bag istubular and is contained within the outer bag, being configured to befilled with the contents, and includes a discharge section. Thisdownload section forms a path to download the contents and extends to alower level than the bottom of the outer bag, passing through theopening of the bag. The first joining element is tied around thedischarge outlet of the inner bag to close the path. The lid is glued tothe outer side of the bottom surface to close the bottom opening of theinner bag and thus cover the tubular discharge path, which is tied insuch a way as to narrow the passage.

A great difference with the invention proposed here, having thisantecedent tubular portions both at the entrance and at the exit, beingthat at the exit that tubular portion passes through the opening of theouter bag and goes well beyond it, having this inner bag its own tieindependent of the one that closes the outer bag.

Japanese Patent No. JP2002337939A-1 discloses a device consisting of anexternal bag with a rigid frame, and an internal bag with a tie in theoutlet tube, very much in the style of the aforementioned one. It has,in turn, a rigid frame that crosses the bottom in several directions.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,230,998 discloses a multi-layered paper bag, notdesigned to be used multiple times or to be opened by the bottom.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,587B1 discloses a container for items consisting ofa flexible bag and an enclosure at the top end of said bag. Theenclosure consists of a flexible member with a pair of anchors and arigid member with a pair of pivots. Both members, the flexible and therigid, are coupled when the bag is closed and separate when it is open.When the bag is open its opening is substantially circular, and when itis closed the enclosure is crescent-shaped. This bag does not open frombelow nor is it designed for unloading, but for the transport of tools.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Our invention aims, as will be seen in detail later, to a bag that cancontain a very considerable volume and weight, which in practice turnedout to be very in excess of 2 Ton., whose bottom opens instantly andcompletely when the operator wishes, thus discharging all its contentsregardless of what it is or its state of humidity or agglomeration.

Until now, only the flowing loads were manageable with bags whose bottomopens, such as cereals. Conventional bags cannot handle, for example,wet cement, wet debris, or any other cargo that did not flow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a bag, according to an exemplary embodiment of theinvention, with a whole in its bottom;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exterior of the bag with the whole sewn closed;

FIG. 3 illustrates an interior of the bag with the whole closed;

FIG. 4 illustrates the bag in a closed state;

FIG. 5 illustrates the bag from below and closed;

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of the bag at the bottom; and

FIG. 7 illustrates the bag filled with cargo.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The specialized reusable bag for total and instantaneous discharge thatis the subject of this request is essentially composed of a compositebottom closure bag, consisting of three flaps or “ears” and an externalor lower closure with a strong enclosure system consisting of a tie thatgoes through a series of reinforced grips.

The bag can be tubular or formed by a sheet of flexible material(textile or not) with a longitudinal seam.

A “normal” bag is reinforced the bottom by sticking or sewing a flexiblereinforcement, whether textile or not. Then this background is cut in adiagonal cross (from corner to corner), as shown in FIG. 1 extendingoutward to the three resulting triangles, and then folding inward, andsewn tightly, to an extension of about half of these triangles,depending on the size of the quadrangular hole to be obtained, as shownin FIG. 2 .

FIG. 3 illustrates the reinforced and sewn hole from the inside side.

In the triangles turned inwards and reinforced, grips are sewn for theenclosure, equally reinforced as the bag, forming loops so that throughthem the rope that will close the bag passes. The minimum is one loopper side, and there may be more. Also, the cuts that go from the cornersof the hole to the outer corners of the bag may or may not be sewn, thisbeing irrelevant to the weight of the bag.

Subsequently, the loops are tied together, and the bag is thus closed inits external closure, as illustrated in FIG. 4 .

Three of the sides of the bag have sewn from the inside, three ears orflaps, each the size of the bottom of the bag, and that once tied thelower closure, fold on it and one on the other, until forming a closurecomposed of these three flaps and the lower closure with the loopspierced and joined with a rope of the thickness to the load. Thiscomposite closure is not inferior in resistance, being able to be muchsuperior, to a bag without modifications.

The unloading operation, once the bag hangs over the indicated place,consists simply of cutting the rope of the lower tie, with whicheverything opens instantly, thus discharging the contents, whatever itis and in any degree of aggregation and/or humidity.

It should be noted that the lower opening is not a part of the base ofthe bag, but is the entire base, so it is the maximum to which you canaspire. The flaps instantly unfold down and out once the tie was cutoff, and the load, whether sliding or not, whether fluid or not, fallsin a fraction of a second.

The handles of the bag, usually four but which can be more, are sewn tothe upper sides of the bag with the corresponding reinforcements.

The entire bag can be used indefinitely times, occupying when empty andfolded a minimum space, which is very useful for storage. It isnoteworthy that the only “spare” that must be replaced for re-use is thepiece of rope, about 50 cm, of the tie of the lower/outer closure. Theopening is performed by an operator with a sharp instrument placed atthe end of a long control, proceeding simply to cut the string of theouter/lower closure.

FIG. 5 illustrates the bag from below and closed, that is, tied theloops of the outer closure and folded the two inner flaps, in order tocover entirely (and in triplicate, including the closure with the tie)the bottom.

In FIG. 6 , left, the piece at the bottom of the bag is shown. FIG. 6illustrates the four “ears” sewn together from the bottom piece, the“buckles” through which the closing string passes, and the closingstring itself. Above this piece folds the Flap 1 and Flap 2, as shown inthe figure on the right. The cutting of the string causes a tear of theseams that go to the corners and everything comes out (down) allowingthe load to fall.

To the left of FIG. 7 , view of the bags full of cargo and ready to belifted. On the right, seen from below the loaded bag, with the stringjoining the four “buckles”, and then the discharge by cutting thatstring.

1. A bag, comprising: a plurality of handles at a top of the bag; anouter closure composed of four flaps formed by a cutting the bag fromcorner to corner to form an “X” in a bottom of the bag, and forming fourtriangles in the bottom of the bag and creating a square or quadrangularhole in a center of the bottom of the bag, and edges of the fourtriangles being sewn together in a direction extending outwardly from abottom of the bag; a loop or buckle sewn to a central part of an inneredge of each flap, the loops or buckles configured to receive a stringthat joins the four loops of the four flaps to close the bag; and two ormore additional flaps sewn to adjacent or opposite sides of the bag,which unfold to cover the square or quadrangular hole.